“Juvie* or Dead”: Kieran on where his life was headed without Eikon”
Before Kieran met Eikon, life felt like it was going nowhere. Days blurred into one another, long hours spent at home, playing video games, feeling bored, restless and disconnected. School wasn’t going well either, and Kieran had recently been excluded, which meant an even greater lack of routine and significant social isolation. At the start of support, he self-reported a score of 1 out of 10 for how often he left the house to engage in activities, citing a lack of motivation and structure.
Everything began to shift when Kieran met Anna and Jacqui from Eikon through the Safer Streets project. Although he had started an 8-week Eikon group program within school, he was unable to complete it due to his exclusion from school. However, a strong rapport had already begun to form between Kieran and the Eikon practitioners.
Anna began one-to-one sessions with Kieran, identifying football as a key interest. It was the one place he felt free, happy, and genuinely himself. Weekly sessions at the park, kicking a ball around, helped him build routine, confidence, and trust. Football became more than just a sport; it was a pathway to re-engagement.
Through regular park meet‑ups, trips to Brooklands Museum and Topgolf, and activities within his local community, both one‑to‑one with Anna’s support and alongside other young people in similar circumstances, Kieran gradually rediscovered his motivation. Anna got him out of the house and back out into the world again, encouraging Kieran’s social interactions.
Kieran also joined the Eikon summer holiday programme ‘We Move’ run by Jacqui for young people to experience the positive impact that sport and movement can have on their mental health. The programme allowed Kieran to meet other young people, improve his social and communication skills, and find peer-to-peer support.
One step at a time, Kieran’s mindset began to change. The more he engaged, the more he realised he could do more. He could get up in the morning. He could show up. He could try. And eventually, with Anna’s support, he joined a local football team. It gave him structure, belonging, and a goal to work toward. For the first time in a long time, he had something positive to look forward to every week.
When asked what might have happened if he hadn’t worked with Eikon, Kieran answered bluntly: “Juvie* or dead.” That’s the scale of the change. Support gave him hope. Football gave him focus. And the youth work-led approach gave him the time he needed to turn things around.
Being supported by Eikon didn’t just help Kieran get into football; it helped him get back into school. It gave him purpose, drive, and the belief that he could build something better for himself. Following support, Kieran now self-rates his original goal of leaving the house to engage in activities as a 7 out of 10, reflecting significant personal progress.
*Juvie: informal US slang referring to a juvenile detention centre or prison for under‑18s. (Oxford English Dictionary.)
